The electio
librorum was a method of securing the safety of the books
by distributing the responsibility for making good losses
equally over the whole community. In the case of
University College an Opponent in theology, a teacher
of the Sentences, and a Regent who also taught, had the
right to borrow freely any book he wanted if he would
restore it, when he had done with it, to the Fellow who
had chosen it at the distribution (statutes, 1292).
A register of loans was carefully maintained. The
Fellows of All Souls were required to have a small
indenture drawn up for each book borrowed, and such
indenture was to be left with the warden or the vice-
warden (statutes, 1443) At Pembroke College, Cambridge,
the librarian or keeper was to prepare large tablets covered
with wax and parchment: on the latter were to be written
the titles of books, on the former the names of the
borrowers; when each book was returned, the borrower's
name was pressed out. This was a monastic practice.
Such records, even if trifling, were in turn the subject of an
indenture if they were transferred from one person to
another.[1]
[1] P.
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